Darkroom comfort items?

[theBDT]

...pot... erm, medical grade...

[John Bowen]

...pot... erm, medical grade...

Hmmmm...I can see myself developing prints in the single malt scotch and drinking the amidol....better pass on the pot.

[sully75]

I don't have a darkroom, but if I did and was spending a lot of time in it, I'd definitely be wearing a pair of Sanita clogs. Stupid comfortable for standing for long periods. I think I'd also make it a point to walk briskly around the room once in a while to encourage blood to return to the ol' heart.

[Sevo]

Well, I've never felt a need for fancy darkroom footwear. But a plain mono, single speaker radio can help a lot at keeping me oriented in the complete darkness during film tray development.

[Michael S]

I'm not sure it would qualify as a "comfort" item, but for me an invaluable piece of equipment is the vacuum sealer to keep my developer solutions from oxidizing. Before I bought one, I would constantly be throwing away old developer which had gone bad in the bottles. Now I store developers in dark wine bottles and vacuum seal them, and every time I pour my developer it is as clean and clear as the day I mixed it.

[Jay DeFehr]

A dishwasher is very nice.

[biglewsmi]

I'm not sure it would qualify as a "comfort" item, but for me an invaluable piece of equipment is the vacuum sealer to keep my developer solutions from oxidizing. Before I bought one, I would constantly be throwing away old developer which had gone bad in the bottles. Now I store developers in dark wine bottles and vacuum seal them, and every time I pour my developer it is as clean and clear as the day I mixed it.

I'd be interested in learning a little more about your vacuum sealer setup Michael. I don't get to spend as much time as I would like working in my darkroom, so there are times when things go bad before I can finish them.

[cyrus]

I'm not sure it would qualify as a "comfort" item, but for me an invaluable piece of equipment is the vacuum sealer to keep my developer solutions from oxidizing. Before I bought one, I would constantly be throwing away old developer which had gone bad in the bottles. Now I store developers in dark wine bottles and vacuum seal them, and every time I pour my developer it is as clean and clear as the day I mixed it.

The real trick is to develop a lot of film constantly...

[Ken Lee]

This article discusses and illustrates an affordable vacuum sealing device.

It's on the Pyrocat Forum, but can be applied to any chemistry.

[Michael S]

I hear you biglewsmi. Until I obtained a vacuum sealer, I would always try to fill my developer bottles to the very top, because any air that remained would invariably and inevitably oxidize the solution. I can't tell you how much precious chemicals I have had to throw away because of it. With the vacuum sealer I use old wine bottles (gives my darkroom a very classy look, as long as you don't mistake the Dektol for Riesling), and utilizing the special valved bottle stops, I can keep my developers in half filled bottles, but without any air to oxidize them. I bought mine at a nearby Fred Meyer's store, but I'm sure that you can easily find one on the internet.